


Taming the Savage Nosebleed

by akisazame



Category: Persona 4
Genre: Community: badbadbathhouse, F/M, Mild Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-01-22
Updated: 2009-01-22
Packaged: 2018-02-24 13:21:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2582903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akisazame/pseuds/akisazame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rise has a cunning plan to solve Kanji's nosebleed problem once and for all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Taming the Savage Nosebleed

**Author's Note:**

> prompt from badbadbathhouse: "Rise/Kanji - trying to help Kanji overcome his nosebleed problem"

Kanji and Rise were both in the same class at Yasogami High, but the two of them barely ever talked to each other. Ever since Rise had joined the investigation team, it had been quite clear that Souji was her favorite member, to the point of flat out ignoring everyone else. As for Kanji, it wasn't that he didn't like Rise; it was that she, like every girl, made him strangely uncomfortable every time she got too close. On top of that, she was a freaking _idol,_ manufactured to be the type of girl that would give even regular guys nosebleeds. As a result, he tried his best to just avoid contact, for both their sakes.

So when Rise approached him one October day after class, Kanji just stared at her, mouth agape. The things that she actually _said_ didn't help matters any. "Hey, Kanji-kun, wanna come over to my place today?"

Stare.

"Kanji-kun?"

Stare.

"Hellooooo? Earth to Kanji-kun!"

Stare.

"If you're gonna stare at me, could you at least close your mouth? You're gonna start drooling and that's one of my pet peeves. Creepy stalker fans who drool."

At long last, Kanji blinked and shook his head in a vague attempt to clear out the weird fuzzy feeling. "Uh, what?"

Rise sighed heavily and put her hands on her hips. "You. Me. My house. Yes?"

Was this some kind of date or something? Being a complete amateur at this whole hanging-out-with-girls thing, Kanji was seriously confused. "Uh. I guess?"

"Great!" Rise chirped, figuring that was as good of a reply as she was going to get. But that was the whole point of her brilliant idea, right? She led the way out of the classroom, Kanji following her with that weird dazed expression on his face. "I told the others that we're studying for exams together. Pretty smooth, right?"

All at once, Kanji snapped back to his senses. "Hang on a sec, Rise-chan. What the heck's this about? If we ain't studying, then what are we..."

"Why, I'm glad you asked, Kanji-kun!" Rise answered, spinning around to smile at him while continuing to walk backwards down the hall. "I'm gonna help you with that problem you have, once and for all!"

Again Kanji was dumbfounded. Problem? Yeah, okay, he had a lot of those; he was definitely the first one to admit that. So what the heck was she blabbering about? What problem was she going to try and fix?

They didn't talk too much on the way back to Rise's place. Rise was as bubbly as usual, humming one of her own songs to herself and practically skipping down the sidewalk. Meanwhile, Kanji was lost in thought, trying to figure out what exactly Rise was up to. What the hell problem did she mean? His problem with being mistaken for some kind of punk biker kid and getting picked up by the cops? His problem with thinking he might be gay (even though he _totally_ wasn't, not that it mattered, but man Yosuke should shut his trap about it)? His problem with thinking it was pretty fun to sew cute bunnies and shit?

Once the two of them were alone together in Rise's room, Kanji knew he'd made a big mistake. She led him over to sit on her bed, practically pushing him down on the bright pink bedspread, then she skipped over to her desk and picked up a box of tissues. "Hopefully we won't need more than these," she said, walking back over to the bed and setting the tissue box beside him.

"Wh- what the hell's this for?!" Kanji stammered, eyes wide. Then his face grew hot and he looked away. There was only one thing he could think of to do with tissues, and he sure as hell wasn't about to do it with _Rise_ in the room.

Rise clucked her tongue, hands on her hips again. "For your nosebleeds, silly. But don't worry! Rise Kujikawa is gonna cure you of that once and for all!" She had a triumphant look on her face, but after she finished talking it melted into something entirely different, something between a smile and a smirk.

And then she was coming towards him, climbing into his lap, pushing him back onto the bed. Her hands were on his face, so warm, so soft, and there was no hesitation as her lips pressed against his. Alarm bells sounded in Kanji's mind, a voice screaming out that this wasn't what he wanted, dammit, but he was powerless to stop her. Her hands slid back into his hair, and then her tongue was trying to pry his tightly closed lips apart.

Then she stopped, abruptly, scrunching up her nose in displeasure. She reached over and pulled a tissue from the box and pressed it to Kanji's nose. "Blood tastes funny," she said matter-of-factly, as if it were a completely normal thing that would come up in everyday conversation.

"S- sorry," Kanji stammered, pushing himself back up into a sitting position and holding the tissue to his nose. He realized that Rise was still straddling him, watching intently for her next opportunity to pounce, and it made him immensely uncomfortable; it certainly wasn't helping his nosebleed any. He scooted back on the bed a little just to get some distance between them. The thing was, even though he hadn't enjoyed the kiss at the time, he kind of liked it in retrospect. "You really think this'll work, Rise-chan?"

She looked thoughtful then, as if she hadn't considered the possibility of it _not_ working. "Well, what you need is prolonged exposure, right? You get all nervous and nosebleed-y because you don't spend a lot of time around girls. So if you spend a lot of time around one, you'll get used to it, yeah? Then you'll stop getting nosebleeds. It's the perfect plan!"

_Except for the part where we barely know each other and I've kind of got a thing for another girl who I previously thought was a boy, but okay._ He refrained from saying that out loud, though, and instead just tried to focus on his nose. He had it down to a fine science now; just tilt your head forward and pinch a little and they usually stopped right away.

Or it would have, if Rise hadn't chosen that exact moment to take the top of her school uniform off.

Kanji hurriedly reached for more tissues with one hand while smashing the previous tissue up against his nose with the other. "Wh- what the heck're you doin' that for?!" he practically shouted, staring at her wide-eyed. Finally he couldn't take it anymore and had to look away, get away, something, anything. He tried to get up but Rise was faster, grabbing hold of his wrist with a grip much stronger than he'd expected.

"Silly Kanji, thinking you can run away." Her voice was different, thicker than usual. She was a damn good actress, that's for sure. He had to keep thinking that, keep telling himself that, because there was one hundred percent no way that a girl like her, a freaking _idol,_ would actually give a shit about a guy like him in any normal situation. The fact that they were like this now, her on top of him wearing just a bra and the lower half of her school uniform, did nothing to convince him that this wasn't all just an act.

She reached a hand up to the wad of tissues he had crammed up against his nose, and gently pulled them away. "See? Better already. Just as I thought." She gave that smile-smirk again before pressing her lips against his a second time.

This time, Kanji wasn't at so much of a disadvantage. Unlike the first time, he knew what to expect now. Even so, he still had absolutely no idea what he was doing. How was Rise so damned experienced at this shit? Kanji, on the other hand, felt useless and impossibly awkward. This time, he yielded to the insistent prodding of Rise's tongue against his lips, and oh god, his nose must have started bleeding again because he suddenly felt extremely lightheaded. He couldn't be losing that much blood, could he? But either Rise hadn't noticed or didn't care, because she was still kissing him just as insistently as before. Or maybe his nose wasn't bleeding at all and this lightheaded feeling was something else entirely.

"C'mon, Kanji-kun, loosen up," she whispered against his lips. In the next instant, her warm hands were snaking up underneath his shirt, pulling it over his head and off, and now far too much of their skin was touching and Kanji felt absolutely certain that he was going to pass out. _Gotta keep it together, keep it together, Tatsumi._ But goddammit that was hard to do with Rise's skin being so soft and stuff. Despite Rise's request, he found it impossible to relax, not with her hands all over his chest like that, and her lips now trailing down his neck.

Suddenly, an image of Naoto flashed into Kanji's head. It certainly wasn't the first time; ever since the first time they'd met, when he thought that she was a boy, he'd thought of her constantly, despite how uncomfortable it had made him. He'd felt more secure about it since learning the truth of her gender, not that it mattered particularly, but the fact that he was thinking about her _now,_ while another girl was half-naked on top of him, was unsettling. What would Naoto think of this? Probably wouldn't care; it's not like Kanji had a chance with a smart, wonderful person like her. But then again, he didn't think that he had a chance with a person like Rise either, even if it was all some kind of weird experiment.

Maybe this was some kind of triumphant first step down the glorious path of manhood. Or something.

Kanji closed his eyes, pushing out the thoughts of Naoto that were attempting to dominate his mind, and tried his best to focus. Eyes still squeezed shut, like he couldn't bear to watch his own hands do what they were about to do, he slowly slid his hands up Rise's sides until he felt the fabric that covered her breasts under his fingertips. Yeah, okay, this wasn't so bad. He hoped and prayed that his nose wouldn't start bleeding as he fondled her, delicately, like she was something he could break if he did something oafish like usual.

He couldn't see it due to his eyes being welded shut, but he felt Rise's body shift, then the slightest pressure of a tissue dabbing at his nose. "Sorry," he mumbled, feeling his face redden again, still not confident enough to open his eyes.

"Don't worry about it," she replied, her breath hot on his neck. He shivered involuntarily, though that was really nothing compared to the feeling he got when Rise's leg was suddenly between his, rubbing up against him. "Looks like you've got more problems than just a nosebleed," she teased, and Kanji was certain that his entire face must have been the color of a tomato.

And then her hands were at the button on his pants, and Kanji's eyes flew open again. He couldn't take it anymore. "R- really, Rise-chan, you don't have to..." His mouth was suddenly dry and his voice came out scratchier than usual. "S- seriously, I'd really rather not..."

Rise pouted, and if Kanji didn't know how good of an actress she was, then he might have been fooled into thinking she was sincerely disappointed. "But you can't just leave like this, Kanji-kun."

"Like hell I can't!" Kanji blurted out, despite knowing full well that she was right. This was all so strange; it didn't seem real. If someone had come up to him this morning before school and said that after school today he would be in Rise Kujikawa's bedroom about to have sex with her or something, he would have punched the guy's lights out. He looked away, sheepishly. "What I mean is, you don't hafta do anything you don't wanna."

Then she smiled, just a little; a real smile, not the fake one she used in all those publicity photos. "You are so dense sometimes, Kanji."

It was the first time she'd ever said his name without the honorific, and it was the lack of it that somehow caused a swell of courage to surge up inside him. Okay, so maybe he did have a thing for Naoto, just like how Rise had a thing for Souji. But right now, in the fading light of this October afternoon, that didn't particularly matter. He slid his hands up her thighs, under her skirt, and she reciprocated by putting her hands back on his waistband.

Kanji somehow kept finding ways to be even more ham-fisted than usual, and he kept trying to apologize for everything he did. But every time he tried, Rise would just silence him with a kiss. Rise did all the leading; was it because she'd been in showbiz that she knew how to do all this stuff so well? But even she was clumsy about it, betraying her lack of actual experience. Either way, Kanji was glad for whatever knowledge she did have, because after she guided him inside her, his mind was an absolute blank.

The whole thing didn't last very long, of course. After it was over, Rise lay down next to him, her skin hot against his, still wearing the skirt that they'd never bothered to remove. Her eyes were somewhat unfocused, but he could still tell that she was studying his face. "Hey, Kanji?"

"Yeah?"

"Your nose isn't bleeding."

He reached up to dab the space underneath his nose with his fingertips, then pulled them away to look. Sure enough, she was right.


End file.
